Downs Township

Downs Township

Lawson Downs was born about the vear 1809, near Nashville, Tennessee, where he lived until he was nine years of age. Then his parents moved to White County, Illinois, and there Lawson Downs remained until he was grown. In the year 1829 he came to McLean County, Illinois, and entered his land in the present township of Downs. He was accustomed to raise pigs in the timber, which were so wild, that when he fattened them, he threw down corn and went away, or they would never eat it. When they were fat he hunted them with his rifle and shot them in the timber.

During the winter of the deep snow Lawson Downs had his sheep covered by the snow, but he found them by looking for the holes which their breath melted up through the crust. In order to get wood during that memorable winter, he was obliged to shovel his way to a tree, cut it down and haul it in with oxen.

Lawson Downs served in the Black Hawk war, having been out thirty days under Covel. For this service he afterwards obtained a warrant for a quarter section of land. He sold the warrant cheap and never located the land.

Lawson Downs and Henry Jacoby hauled goods to Bloomington, for James Allin, at an early day. It was great work and small pay. It was very hard, in early days, to earn a little money, but it would buy a great deal. One dollar and a quarter would buy an acre of land.

The prairie grass in the early days was as high as a man's head while riding on horseback. While hunting for game, the dogs, being down on the ground, could not see far. Mr. Downs hunted with a greyhound belonging to Henry Jacoby. Downs would look ahead and see the wolf or deer running through the grass, and would tell the hound to jump on the horse. It would do so, and Downs would point out the game. The dog would immediately take after it, and was sure to bring it down.

Mr. Downs was something of a hunter. He hunted bees in the fall, and he trapped otter on the Kickapoo. He often trapped wolves. Atone time he found in his trap not one of the large wolves, but one of his neighbors' black hogs. This was, indeed, " catching the wrong pig by the ear."

During the sudden change in December, 1836, many of Mr. Downs' sheep and hogs froze fast in the slush, and many chickens had their feet frozen in it.

William G. Downs, who lives near Paoli in Miami County, Kansas. He is rather a large, fine-looking man. During the war he was a captain in the Thirty-ninth Illinois Infantry.

George W.' Downs now lives at Diamond Grove. He is a man of medium stature, has black hair and dark, expressive eyes. He served three years during the war as a private in the Ninety- fourth Illinois.

John D. Downs is a man of medium size and light complexion. He was not old enough to get into the army. He lives about three miles south of Gillem Station in Downs township.

Lawson Downs was slenderly built, and had a dark though rather sanguine complexion. He was rather slow to make up his mind, but when he had it once made up it was not easily changed. He was universally respected as an honest, upright citizen, and the township of Downs was named after him. He was no respecter of persons, except as they deserved respect by their ability or goodness of heart. He died September 7, 1860.

William Weaver was born February 10, 1783, in Lee County, Virginia. He was of English descent. His father came from England at a very early day, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary war and served under General Green.

William Weaver received the little education he had at home. When he grew to manhood he made a profession of religion and became a Baptist preacher. In the' fall of 1831 he came to Washington County, Illinois. In the fall of 1832 he settled in Old Town timber, McLean County, near the present line between Downs and Old Town, and there he lived until his death, which occurred September 3, 1838. He was accustomed to preach in the first school house in Empire township. When he came to McLean County he brought about sixty head of cattle to stock the farm which he opened up. He was the first farmer who brought any grafted fruit to the county ; this he obtained from Curtis' Nursery in Edgar County, on the Wabash.

The settlers were greatly annoyed by fires on the prairie, and made use of all means to protect their farms from destruction. The settlers in the southwestern edge of Old Town timber were protected by a wide slough, and could fight the fire successfully.

" About the year 1843 a certain would-be prophet, named Miller, upon whom the mantle of Elijah did not fall, predicted that on a certain day the world would come to an end. As the time approached for the termination of sublunary affairs, more or less excitement prevailed. On the south side of Old Town timber, and not far from where the village of Downs now stands, lived a boy named Mark C , who was much affected by Miller's prediction. About a mile south of Old Town timber, and running parallel with it, was a broad marshy slough, which then afforded water the year round during the ordinary seasons. Between this slough and the timber were located the most of the farms of the early settlers, and as each succeeding year the autumnal fires swept over the prairies, stretching twenty miles away to the south, the settlers relied mainly upon this slough to save their farms from destruction. One day, while the excitement aroused by Miller was at its height, Mark and a neighbor boy, who unfortunately lived on the other side of the little stream, were diceussing the probabilities of the impending judgment when the tire of the Lord should come upon them and wrap the world in flames. Suddenly a new idea seemed to strike Mark. Thinking of the slough, he exclaimed with joy and reassurance : 'Well, thank God, it can't get to our house; it can't cross the big slough !"

It was many years after the tirst settlement of the country before the people could believe that the prairies would be worth anything. John Hendrix was among the first to see the richness and utility of the prairies. While he and John Benson and John Rhodes were once discussing the matter it seemed to be their opinion that if the edges of the groves could be settled that would be all they could expect. But Hendrix said : "I don't know about that, boys. This is mighty rich prairie."

Joseph Weaver was known among the settlers as "Old Father Weaver." He was five feet and eight inches in height, had a quick, lively step, and never used a cane. He was full of fun and good humor. He died of congestive chills, and, it is thought, some disease of the spine. He married, December 12, 1803, Mary Sims. He had thirteen children, twelve of whom lived to grow to manhood and womanhood. Eight are now living. They are :

Joseph B. Weaver, horn April 13, 1831. lives on the homestead. He was elected Supervisor in 1867, Justice of the Peace in 1870. He served three years during the war in the 94th I Hi - nois Volunteers, lie married, September 30, 1855, Margaret Kimler, and has four children.

William Bishop was horn September 8, 1794, in Fauquier County, Virginia. lie was of English, Irish. Scotch and French descent. His father moved to Fleming County, Kentucky, when William was probably only one or two years of age, and when he was five or six years of age the family came to Clark County, Ohio. There he received some little education from a tutor, who was employed to teach in the family.

During the war of 1812 William Bishop was a teamster in the army, and went to Fort Meigs and to Fort Wayne. He frequently camped out when the snow came over him. On the campaign one of the oxen belonging to his team died., and he put a harness on the other and used it as a leader. Sometimes he was unable to get feed for his oxen and gave them salt bacon, which they ate verv readily and seemed to be much strengthened bv it. He often fed it to his cattle afterward.-, and it made them healthy.

In about the year 1820 Mr. Bishop went to Virginia, and there married Margaret Lake. In 1833 he came to Illinois and settled in Old Town timber. When the family first arrived there, thev were obliged to sleep in a wagon for three weeks. Xo plank could be had for love or money. At their first arrival they built a fire near an elm tree and made dinner. They found a hunter's abandoned hut, cleaned it out and lived in it during their first winter. During the next year they built the six mile house, a double log cabin, which was used for many years as a stopping place for travelers. All of the water used was hauled from the prairie, two miles distant. They twice attempted to dig a well, but at the depth of fifty feet the ground was still dry. It was very difficult indeed to haul their water, as they had no barrel, lint a circumstance occurred by which they obtained a water barrel. General Gridley at that time kept store in Bloomington. He had a barrel of honey standing outside his door, as no space was left for it inside. Some mischievous boys pulled out the plug, and the honey was lost. General Gridley used some very unparliamentary laiiiruau'e about the matter, but as he had no further use for the barrel, gave it to Mrs. Bishop.

Mr. Bishop commenced tanning on an abandoned claim. He was much troubled by prairie tires, which sometimes ran into the timber. A great hurricane swept through the timber in 1827, and piled it up in every direction, and when the prairie fire swept in among the logs it would sometimes burn for many weeks.

The memorable sudden change in the weather in December, 1836, came when Mr. Bishop was two miles from home. lie immediately came home on horseback, driving a yoke of cattle. The dumb creatures insisted on going into the brush for protection against the piercing wind, and it was with the greatest difficulty that he brought them home. His chickens were many of them frozen up in the slush.

Mr. Bishop was about tive feet and six or eightinches in height, and weighed about one hundred and forty-five pounds. lie had dark hair, gray eyes, a sandy beard and was somewhat baldheaded. He was a hard-working man, but a lively trader. In 1X42 and '43 he bought pork at Pekin and shipped it to the St. Louis market. He served for a while as County Commissioner. He died in October, IS.")."). lie had nine children, six boys and three girls. Thev are :

Henry Clay Bishop was named after the great statesman of Kentucky, whom AVilliam Bishop admired so much. He is rather less than the medium stature, has dark, hazel eyes, is very pleasant in his manner, and is yery kind and accommodating. He is a bachelor and lives about one mile south of Gillem station.

Samuel Bishop is a physician and lives at Moline, Illinois. He is a graduate of a homeopathic institution in St. Louis, and now practices medicine. Before tins he went to Hamilton College, ?few York, where he studied for the ministry. He preached for a year or two, but left the pulpitand began the study of medicine.

After the death of Mr. Bishop, Mrs. Bishop lived for live years in Bloominffton, and sent her two youngest sons. William and Luther to the Normal School to be educated. She then returned to the old place, where she is still living. She is a very kind old lady, and seems yet to be enjoying the best of health.

Elias Henry Wall was horn December 3, 1797, in Warren County, Kentucky. His remote ancestors were Irish, Scotch and Welch. His grandfather, Henry Wall, came from Ireland, and his maternal grandfather, Elias McFadden. was of Scotch descent. His father was George Wall, a preacher in Kentucky, of the Methodist denomination, and his mother was Margaret Mc- Fadden.

Mr. Wall received his common school education in Kentucky, where he lived until he was thirty-six years of age. When he was eleven years of age he heard Peter Cartwright exhort. The latter had missed his way in traveling to an appointment and came to Mr. George Wall's house, and while there, gave the exhortation. While sroing from one point to another Mr. Cartwright was in the habit of marking his way by blazing the trees with a hooked knife which he carried for that purpose. It was this habit which suggested a joke to Mr. Cartwright. When he was in a public house in Xew York, a room in the highest story was given him, and he inquired for a broad-axe to blaze his way up in order that he might find it without assistance. Elias Wall joined the Methodist Church when he was twenty-one years of age, and has been a consistent member ever since, lie was a class-leader for fourteen years in Warren County, Kentucky, and when he came to Illinois, some of the old members of his class raised for him a class of nine members. Within a few years it increased to seventy, but has since been divided and subdivided.

Mr. Wall remembers very little of the war of 1812, besides what is written in history. When the draft for men was made he drew for his brother-in-law, dames Price, and obtained a 1 dank.

In the year 1830 Mr. Wall came to the West on a visit, and was much pleased with the country. He attended a camp-meeting on the Ox-bow prairie, and heard the celebrated Father Walker preach. Ln the fall he returned to Kentucky. He was married December 21, 1830, to Martha P. Savidge, daughter of Littleburv and Rhoda Savidge.

The winter of the dee]) snow (1830-31) was memorable in Kentucky. It fell to the depth of a foot and a half, which was remarkable for that climate.

In the latter part of October, 1833, he came to the West, but, like so many of our pioneers, had great difficulty in becoming acclimated. For eight years he was sick with various diseases ; at one time he had the cholera, and after the disease was broken, his life was dispaired of, even by the attending physician. But a good constitution at last restored him.

When Mr. Wall came to the West he brought with him a black man, named Elijah Thomas, who was allowed to be free by Mr. Wall, sr. This colored man had a younger brother, named Andrew Jackson, who remained in Kentucky. He was allowed his liberty and considered free by his master, George Wall. But in course of time, George Wall died, and left no will relating to young Andrew Jackson. Everyone who had any claim on him was in Illinois, and perfectly willing that he should be free ; nevertheless, the administrators of the estate bound him out until he became twenty-one. When his time was tip, he ran away to Illinois, but bad great difficulty in getting through. While on the macadamized road, he passed himself oft' as a laborer going to work, but when he came to the border tins little story was "too thin." The border was carefully watched by men with bloodhounds, and when Andrew Jackson came there, they took after him. But be was a plucky fellow : he knocked down one of the bloodhounds and left it for dead, outran the rest and triumphantly crossed the Ohio River to Illinois. Here he thought himself free, but was seized by the sheriff as a runaway slave, in the first town he came to. But fortunately he was recognized by a neighbor, who bad known him in Kentucky, and the sheriff released him from custody. However, young Andrew would have soon released himself from custody, as the sheriff had kindly given him the bounds of the town. He came to Illinois and was safe. He was a smart boy, and learned to read and write, and became a very effective exhorter in the Baptist Church.

Mr. Wall settled first a little to the west of the present station of Downs, on the Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western Railroad; but he now lives about four miles west of Leroy, on the road from that place to Heyworth. His farm first joined that of John Price, who was bis most intimate friend. Not many years after his arrival in the West, he and John Price determined to have a school-house. Some of their neighbors in Old Town wished one also, and they all joined together and built one on the line, which divided the townships, on land given by Wall and Price. It was afterwards used by various denominations as a meeting-house. Pack of the meeting-house thev donated land for a camp-ground. On the third of July, 1848, Mrs. Martha Wall died. She was a very excellent lady and highly respected by all of her acquaintances. On the twenty-second of October. 1850, Mr. Wall was married to Mrs. Clarissa Karr. She was a widow lady of very kind disposition and very estimable qualities of mind. Her maiden name was Clarissa Garrison. Sue is still living and enjoys a happy old age.

Among the many diseases which visited the West, was the erysipelas, which came like an epidemic. Mr. and .Mrs. Wall were sick With it, and five of their relatives died with it. Mr. Wall took care of the children of his relatives who died with this disease, and had parts of tour families with him at one time, making his own family number eleven persons. This was in 1840, when the census was taken. Mr. and Mrs. Wall have no children of their own. Their son is dead, and also all of Mrs. Wall's children by her first marriage. They took care of their grandson, Asbury Barnard, for eighl years, and sent him to the Wesleyan and Normal Universities. He now lives on his farm at the head i^' Old Town, and is in very prosperous circumstances. He loves to visit his grandparents, who have the greatest affection for him. Thev have raised two sets of orphan children, and seem to feel that Providence has placed them upon earth for the purpose of allowing them an opportunity for doing good.

Mi-. Wall has always been a worker in the cause of Christianity, and thinks he should miss no opportunity for reproving sin. A few incidents will show this disposition. A man named Hampton kept a mill down on Kickapoo ('reek in Randolph's Grove. He was a very determined man, and his neighbors stood in fear of him. He was accustomed to go hunting on Sunday, and on one of his Sabbath day hunting excursions he fell in with Mr. Wall, who was* on his way to meeting. The latter said: "Mr. Hampton, if you have no respect for the Sabbath day, I hope you will respect the feelings of this neighborhood. We are a civil people here, and don't hunt on Sunday.'* The impressive manner in which this was spoken, caused Mr. Hampton to turn hack and abandon his hunt. Shortly afterwards, when Mr. Wall went with a <;-rist to Mr. Hampton's mill, the latter said: "By Guinea, Wall, I want you to mind your business. Mr. Randolph says you did wrong in talking to me as you did." Mr. Wall replied : "Mr. Randolph and I are two people: it is my duty to reprove sin wherever I find it." Hampton said it was hard to know the law on the subject; hut Mr. Wall replied that he went by ahigher authority than the law, and he said furthermore, that people had been telling him that lie could not have his grinding done at Hampton's mill because of the circumstance, hut thought the latter should he glad to do it as no one in the neighborhood dared to reprove him for his sin except Mr. Wall. Hampton said: "Get down here," and ground the grain very willingly. A short time after this, some young hunters killed three deer on Sunday and they were about to carry the deer on horseback past Mr.

Wall's door: but Mr. Hampton told them they had "better let Elias Wull alone." Hunting on Sunday was quite common. At one time Mr. Wall heard shooting on Sunday, and on going to the timber found two men with a large buck, which they bad killed, lie was acquainted with one, and, after an introduction to the other, Mr. Wall said: "You arc both of you peace officers and you bunt on Sunday and disturb the peace; were you raised in that way?" One of the gentlemen afterwards told Mr. Wall that the reproof was severely felt, as bis own mother was a Christian woman. Mr. Wall talked to the gentlemen and walked with them for a half a mile, and they promised him never to disturb him again on Sunday, and they kept their word.

Mr. Wall gives bis experience with the sudden change in the weather which occurred in December, 1836. lie says, it turned cold so suddenly that a chicken had its feet frozen tight in the ice. The sudden cold, after the snow and rain, covered the country with a glare of ice, and on this Mi-. Wall was obliged to travel eight miles with an unshod horse to collect money to meet his engagements. The horse frequently slid down the slippery hills on his bare feet.

During the February following, Mr. Wall went to Danville on horseback to enter some land. lie crossed the Sangamon on the ice, but on his return a thaw set in and he re-crossed in a canoe, above the ford, as it was filled with drifted ice, and the water was running rapidly. He led bis horse, a fine cream-colored animal, down the bluff, and it swam across with the canoe, but could not climb the bank. It tried to swim down to the ford, and when it turned to come back, all except its head was carried by the current under the ice; but it swam back by great exertions and succeeded in climbing the bank. When the horse escaped from the danger it seemed much gratified, and "held up its tail, as if it were glad to be alive." Mr. Wall kept this horse for twentytwo years.

Mr. Wall has been troubled for the last twenty years with a cancer in his eye, and has tried many remedies for it. It has been, indeed, a great affliction, but the resolution of the old pioneer has been sufficient even for this. He has tried many different physicians with different success, but still the disease remains.

the tone of his voice show his conscientiousness and his tender feeling. His appearance impresses one with liis dignity and his kindness. He feels it to be his duty to make his life as well as his words a reproof to every form of wickedness. He is respected and loved by the people for many miles around, and is affectionately called " Uncle Elias Wall."

John Price was horn January 23, 1802, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. His father was an American, and his mother was born in Ireland. In 1804 his father's family moved to Montgomery County, Kentucky. Tn 1857 they moved to Warren Comity, same State, then to Williamson County, Tennessee, where they stayed a little more than three years, and then moved hack to Warren County. John Price received very little education. He was obliged to go a long: distance for what he obtained. He trudged three miles every day to school while in Tennessee. The war of 1812 occurred while he was in Tennessee. During this uncertain and exciting contest the neighborhood where he lived was once badly scared by a report that Indians were coming, and the militia turned out, and everyone commenced running bullets ; but the alarm was false.

Tn September , 1821, when Mr. Price was only nineteen years of age, he married Matilda B. Rives. She was related to the historical Rives family of Virginia. But she had something better than honored lineage : she was a smart woman and possessed of good judgment, and now, after more than half a century of wedded life, she is as smart as ever, and better than a fortune to Mr. Price.

As soon as he was married, Mr. Price went to work to support his wife. He sawed lumber with a whip-saw, and after that worked at building flatboats. As the yards where he was employed were some distance from his home, in the winter time he started to work on Monday morning and did not return home until Saturday night. Sometimes he would return every night, and when he did so he was obliged to go two and a half or three miles to work and be there by sunrise and return home after sunset. He worked at sawing lumber and building Hat-boats for seven years. As a matter of course he succeeded, for a man of such energy must be suit of that in the end. In 1830 he came to Illinois on n visit, traveling in a covered wagon and camping out. He was then offered a claim of one hundred and sixty acres of land and a log cabin, near Bloomington, by Rev. Mr. Latta, for forty dollars, l>ut refused it and entered land near where lie now lives. In 1831 lie again came west with his wife for a visit. lie started from Bloomington to return. At that time he had heard nothing of the Black Hawk war: hut when he arrived at Springfield men were volunteering; to go. News travels slowly in an early settled country. In 1834 he came still again, entered land near where he now lives, remained fifteen months and then went to Kentucky for his father. He returned in the fall of 1836 to the place where he now lives, near the little station of Downs, on the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western Railway. Apartof his land is timber and part in prairie. The settlers were always anxious to get land adjoining timber, and now they are almost always to be found settled near the edges of groves. Thev had no idea that the prairie would be valuable except that part near the timber: hut Mr. Price says that by the year 1836 he began to see that the prairie might be worth something after all. His first land was entered at Vandalia and the remainder at Danville. He has owned altogether six hundred and eightv acres, and never paid more than $1.25 per acre for any of it.

When he came to the west he sent to Kentucky for apple seed and cultivated a nursery and an orchard, and supplied all his neighbors with trees.

Of course Mi\ Price remembers the cold snap in 1836, as all settlers do. lie was working a few rods from his house without his coat. The day was warm and the slush was three or four inches deep. In the afternoon a roar in the west gave notice of the approaching wind. It immediately became so cold that by the time he reached the house the frozen slush would nearly hear his weight. He let down his fence to allow his cattle the shelter of some stacked fodder, and they were thereby protected from the storm and were saved, hut many of his pigs froze to death.

The settlers were obliged to go long distances to do their trading. Mr. Price has hauled wheat to Chicago with an ox team, and received fifty-five cents per bushel.

All old settlors have had great difficulty with prairie fires. The grass on the prairie grew enormously high. It was quite often so high that a man on horseback was obliged to hold up his head to see over. In the fall of the year, when this grass became dry, anv accident might set it on tire, and then it was a terrible sight indeed. The flames rolled along and gather force as currents of air were drawn in after them. It was impossible to escape by running before the tire; the swiftest horse would he overtaken by it. In 1836, before Mr. Price came west for the last time, he wrote to have some hay cut and put up. Twenty-four acres were cut and stacked, and when Mr. Price came out he was gratified to find his wishes attended to and his stock provided with food for winter. But soon a fire came rolling over the prairie, and Mr. Price went to save his stacks. They had been placed on mowed ground ; nevertheless a little low grass had grown up and, being touched with frost, lav withered and dry. lie tried to make a back tire, feeling confident he could whip it out in the low grass around his stacks, but it burned fiercely and he went at it with a brush. This only scattered it the more and his stacks went up in smoke. At one time he had a tire on his farm when he was sick with the ague and his boys were gone from home. His next neighbor tore down a quarter of a mile of division fence to save the rails, but one third of them were burned up, nevertheless. The neighbors came from miles around and put up his fence, for people then were always anxious to help one another. The prairie fires drove everything before them, the deer, wolves, rabbits, horses and cattle. The way to contend against tire is to make a back tire, but great care must be taken lest the back fire does not become as dangerous as the one to l,e headed off. A little water sprinkled on the grass in a line is sufficient to hold a back tire from doing damage, but after it once sets under headway nothing can check it.

Mr. Price was a great hunter and a line marksman ; he was to a great extent the leader among the hunters in that locality. During the first four years of his western life he killed twentyfive deer per annum on an average. They were then very numerous ; he has seen more than two hundred deer in one day, has counted thirty go out of the timber to the prairie in one flock. A good deerwasthen worth a dollar. He once killed a very fine one, which, when dressed, weighed one hundred and ninety-five pounds, and was enabled to sell the hams for a dollar or a dollar and a half. He has hadniany amusing episodes during his life as alum- ter. He sometimes hunted with a man named Twining, who was very excitable, and missed his mark by over-anxiety. At one time when Twining had. as usual, succeeded in missing Lis deer, Mr. Price asked him : "Did you kill the deer, Mr. Twining?" i-Xn, I - T elevated too high.**

Deer are easily tamed if caught young. When a fawn is caught and handled once it is tamed, and it sometimes displays the most astonishing intelligence : indeed the deer may be considered the most intelligent of American wild animals, with possibly thefiingle exception of the heaver. The deer shows the most wonderful cunning in its attempts to escape pursuit, and will wade up a stream to throw a dog from the scent. It will walk a long distance and then take a tremendous spring to one side to make the pursuer lose the track and take time to hunt for it. Mr. Price had at one time a tame deer, and a Pennsylvanian, who was traveling in his covered wagon, came along with a dog* of which he had a very high opinion, and thought it could catch the deer. Mr. Price allowed the man to try it. The dog sprang for the deer and they had a lively race and soon disappeared. "Xow,"* said the Pennsylvanian, "my dog has caught it."" In anhourthe deer came walking cautiously hack and went into one door of the house and out of the other into the brush where it laid down. It seemed to know that the dog would not dare to follow its track through the house. The dog was lost and was not found until nightfall.

In early days the wolves were plenty : Mr. Price lias stood in Lis door and counted five or six of them playing around in the field, lie succeeded in killing the largest wolf known in that part of the country. It was of the large gray variety, and not one of the little prairie wolves. It was often chased by the hunters, hut was strong and swift, and would run away from them or elude pursuit. It was so large and powerful that it would carry off grown up hogs from the pen, and it was so audacious that it became a terror to the neighborhood. It began Drowliner around the house of Mr. Cowden and eating a sheep which had died nearby, and lie sent for Mr. Price, who came one evening to kill it. The night was clear and cold, and he wont out occasionally to listen, and could hear it howl some distance away. At last he almost gave the matter up. when he discovered the shadow of the wolf on the snow as it was trotting down by the fence close to the house. lie went into the house and returned with his gun, and the noise and disturbance caused the wolf to stop, when Mr. Price tired at it about eighty yards distant. The wolf could only move twenty or thirty steps, but when surrounded by men and dogs, nothing could take hold of it. It shut its powerful jaws on everything within reach, and the strongest dog in the neighborhood was obliged to stand back. Another shot killed it. Tt was so large that, when standing up, a common sized dog could walk under it without touching. For this wolf nearly all the farmers for miles around offered premiums of corn. Jesse Funk offered fifty bushels, and all of the premiums amounted to more than a thousand bushels. Zachariah Blue offered a tine horse for the privilege of collecting the corn, but Mr. Price would accept nothing. He said that the fun of killing the wolf was a sufficient reward.

It was the custom of the settlers to take a general hunt towards a pole put up in some central place. Mr. Price took part in a general hunt when the pole was put up near Long Point, and the settlers started out from Buckles' Grove, Randolph's Grove, Long Point and Old Town.

Mr. Price has held some township offices, bu1 beyond this has never troubled himself much with political matters, lie was the fourth justice of the peace of Priceville Precinct, ami continued to hold that office for twelve years, until the organization of the township of Downs. lie was treasurer of the township and of the Kickapoo Union District when it was formed, holding his office for sixteen years in all.

> On the thirteenth of September, 1871, Mr. and Mrs. Price celebrated their golden wedding. About one hundred persons were present at dinner, and four of them were guests at the original wedding half a century before. Speeches were made by E. II. Wall, Thomas Twining, Joseph Weaver, Dr. Montgomery and Mrs. Lewis Case. Mr. Wall told the exploits of old settlers, and Mi'. Twining enlarged upon the events of tin' early days. Put Dr. Montgomery made the most sensible and truthful speech of the occasion, lie said that the other speakers had decidedly neglected Mrs. Price in making their remarks, and that he could safely sav she made the best coffee of any woman in McLean County. He also complimented Mi-. Trice, and said the best job ever done by the latter was when he, as justice of the peace, married him (Dr. Montgomery). This was a slight mistake. The best job ever done by Mr. Price was, when more than fifty years ago, he married Mrs. Price. Various golden presents were made by many persons. Gold-headed ebony canes, gold spectacles, gold rings, gold coins, etc. One cane bore the inscription : " To John Price by P>. II. Price, Sept. 13, 1871," and another, - To Matilda B. Price by P. B. Price, Sept. 13, 1871." When these presents were made, Mr. Price turned to his children and said : " My dear children, you have been very kind to me, and now I make vou a present," and he gave each of them a twenty dollar gold coin - a rare thine; just now.

Mr. Price has had a family of eight children, four of whom are now living", two sons and two daughters. They are: Mr. P. B. Price, who lives in Downs township; Mr. B. R. Price, who lives in Old Town; Mrs. Polly G. Cowden, who lives at Gillem Station, and Mrs. Nancy Weaver, who lives in Miami County, Kansas. Those children which are dead are dames William, Sarah Frances, Matilda B. and John Rives Price.

Mr. Price is tall, straight, and somewhat slim. His countenance expresses decision of character, good judgment and good feeling. Self command is shown in every movement : he is a man of fine feeling, and a gentleman in the noblest sense of the word. His neighbors think everything of him, and he is, indeed, a splendid American citizens. Mr. and Mrs. Price are both in good health, and a happier, pleasantcr or more sociable husband and wife never lived. Time has dealt with them tenderly, and it will he many years before they will he called to pass over the river. 1 nev are very religious.

Mr. Price's house was built large and roomy below for the purpose of being used as a church, and divine service was held in it more or less regularly for eight or nine years.

Sylvester Peasley was born in Grayson County, Virginia, August, 81, 18*23. His father's name was Isaac Peasley, and his mother's name, before her marriage, was Rachel Holsey. His father was of Scotch descent. His groat grandfather came from Paisley, in Scotland, and this was the family name, but the spelling was changed to Peasley. This great grandfather Paisley was a general in the Revolutionary war, and served with distinction in the Continental army. Sylvester Peasley's grandfather, John Peasley, was also a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and fought in seven general engagements. He was at the battle of Guilford Court House, and his home was near the battle-ground. When the battle opened, Mrs. Peasley, Sylvester's grandmother, was told by some British officers to go into her house and wrap some beds around her to protect her from being shot. They milked her cows, but honestly paid for the milk. Those who know anything of army life will consider the latter a very extraordinary circumstance.

In the fall of 1834, Mr. Isaac Peasley's family came to McLean County, Illinois, and arrived November 3. On their journey they saw in Kentucky many drovers taking large droves of swine to the south. He saw thousands of turkeys driven on foot to Louisville, where they were shipped on steamboats down the river. When the family arrived in McLean County, they had a hard time to find a house to live in through the winter, but finally obtained a cabin of Jesse Funk. It was built of logs, with a chimney of sticks on the outside. This chimney was built of sticks with clay between them, and was plastered on the inside with soft clay. The ii re-place was built of clay pressed against a rack of puncheons ; the hearth was of pounded clay, and the mantlepiece was made of clay and sticks. They used a goods-box for a table and goods-boxes or three-legged stools for chairs. Tin; doors were made of clapboards split and shaved with a drawingknife. The floors were made of puncheons, which had been first split and then hewed with a broad-axe. The cradle was made of shaved clapboards ; but sometimes the baby was rocked in the sugar trough, which was hewed out of a trunk of a tree. The pioneer bedstead has been so often described that anything further is superfluous here.

Mr. Peasley obtained a prairie team of four yoke of oxen which drew a plow with a shear of cold-hammered iron, which cut a turn >w two feet wide. The wooden mould-board was from four to six feet long. This laid down the sod much better than an}' modern plow. Mr. Peasley could plow twenty acres before going to the shop to sharpen the shear. The routine of the day was to rise at daybreak and hunt the oxen which had been turned out the night previous to graze. This was the greatest hardship, as the dew was on the hi^h ^rass, and whoever walked through it became soaking wet to the waist. After breakfast, beii'an the work of ploughing. At noon the oxen were allowed to graze for two hours, and at night thev were turned loose until morning;. The snakes were sometimes very thick, and they continually retreated from the furrow as the sod was turned over, and collected together in the unplowed center. When the latter part of the patch was plowed the snakes became so thick that the grass would fairly writrcrle with them. The rattlesnakes were very thick. Mr. Peasley has killed fifteen in one day. The oxen were sometimes bitten by rattlesnakes, and were made lame for sometime. Mr. Peasley never knew an ox to die of snakebite. The oxen dreaded the rattlesnakes, and when the rattle sounded the oxen sprang up faster than they ever would because of the whip. The danger of the rattlesnake's bite depends much on the season of the year. They are most dangerous in August, for then the poison is most virulent. Mr. Peasley's brother was bitten by rattlesnakes three times in one season, and still feels the effect in August.

Mr. Peaslev lived with his father in a los: cabin on the prairie during the winter of 1836 and '37. He speaks of the sudden change of the weather in December of that winter, so often described in this volume, and says that the sun rose on the following morning accompanied by two sundogs, which glistened on the ice-bound prairie, and the country was like some picture of the polar regions. The longest winter known among the early settlers was the one of 1842 and '43. Winter weather commenced on the tenth of November, and did not break up until between the tenth and twentieth of April. Xo ploughing could be done in April. Nevertheless, the settlers raised fine crops of wheat sowed in May, and good crops of corn planted in June.

Sylvester Peasley speaks warmly of the social feeling which existed among the early settlers, and how glad they were to see every new comer. When meeting was held in the neighborhood everyone attended. The Methodists were the first in the field, then the Cumberland Presbyterians, then the Baptists and then the Christians. At a camp-meeting the whole country had a reunion, and families frequently went fifteen miles to meeting with their ox-teams. In warm weather preaching was held in the open air.

Mr. Peasley was a Democrat until the formation of the Republican party, when he joined the latter because of his opposition to slavery. The political excitement of that period is well remembered, and when the Republican and Democratic parties first fairly tried their strength in 1856, the excitement was intense. Mr. Peasley remembers a practical joke played upon the supporters of Buchanan by the friends of Fremont. The Democrats had raised a hickory pole, and on it was a pair of buck's horns ; but some Republicans came and secretly bored the pole at the bottom until it fell, and then stole the buck's horns.

Mr. Peasley has endured the privations to which the early settlers were subjected. He has made the usual trips to Chicago, lias been out twenty-six days in succession exposed to the coldest of winter weather, has waded the Kankakee River when his clothes were frozen as soon as he came out, and he has slept on the ground in wet weather by cutting brush and laying it down to protect him from the mud. He has given away the better portion of his life to itinerant work when the salary was little or nothing, and has attended to five churches. He never had the advantages of an education, and the information he possesses has been gained in a great measure by study near a fire at night. He is a very humorous man, and loves his joke. His eyes sparkle when he tells some funny anecdote, and he enjoys it over again as well as at first. He is generous, kind and hospitable, and wishes to live in peace with all men. He is very conscientious, but does not wish to be a fanatic in anything. He has been an ardent worker in Sabbath-school enterprises and still takes great interest in the cause. He is six feet and one inch in height :

Mr. Peasley, November 3, 1842, married Miss Mary Stillman, who died October 2, 1863. He had six children born by this marriage, of whom five are living. He married, April 6, 1864, Mrs. Susan Crosby, and b}* this marriage had one child which died when very young. Mr. Peasley's children are :

Alexander P. Craig was born June 30, 1817, in the territory of Illinois, in what is at present White County. His father was of Scotch descent, and his mother of Irish. They were both born and reared in Abbeyville District, South Carolina. Mrs. Craig died in 1853, and her husband died the following year. The Craig family moved from Illinois to Alabama in about the year 1822. No very important event occurred there. Porter Craig there received his early education, which was somewhat limited. In the fall of 1830 the family went to Graves Comity, Kentucky, where they remained four years. In the fall of 1834 they came to Illinois and settled in Old Town timber, McLean County, a ittle south of the present dividing line between Downs and Old Town, near the present residence of A. P. Craig. There they opened a farm. Mr. Craig has done his share of hunting and has chased wolves, deer and turkeys, but had no dangerous adventure. In 1836 the family moved to about three miles north of Leroy, but in the spring of 1840 returned near his present residence. He made his home for three or four years on the

He has had his experience with fires on the prairie. In the fall of 1834 he and his father fixed a log heap on which was piled some stone to he burnt into lime. Soon a lire came sweeping over the prairie and burnt up the log heap, leaving the lime in good condition. The fires in that section of county nearly always came up from Salt Creek or Randolph Grove.

Mr. Craig is about five feet and ten inches in height and rather slim. His whiskers are gray, and his hair is turning white. His eyes are gray. He is pretty firm and decided in his manner. He possesses the confidence of his neighbors and is perfectly straightforward in his dealings.

Mr. Craig married, July 30, 1835, Lora Weaver. He has had ten children, eight of whom are now living, four sons and four daughters. They are :

Mary Jane, born April 6, 1840, was married first to Captain C. Williams, of the 39th Illinois, who was killed at the battle of Deep Run. She is now the wife of D. C. Kazar, of Downs township.

Henry Welch was born November 14, 1816, in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. His father and mother were Americans ; his grandfather came from Wales, and his maternal grandmother came from Germany. His parents moved to Pickaway County, Ohio, when Henry was six months old. When he was about seven years old, they moved to Vigo County, Indiana, where they remained until he was eighteen years old. His early years were not remarkable for any particular incident or anything worthy of note. He came to McLean County, Illinois, March 30, 1835, and entered his land near Diamond Grove, in the present township of Downs. Here he paid close attention to his business of farming, and had very little disposition to hunt, though game was plenty. He once went on a general hunt, when the pole was placed at Long Point, but the party was not successful in killing much game. He has seen many prairie fires, when the grass became dry in the tall, but never lost much by them, as he was always careful to guard against them. He always ploughed around his stacks and fences, and by this precaution saved his property.

The sudden change in the weather which occurred in December, 1836, is remembered by all settlers of that period, and Mr. Welch, of course, had an experience. The day had been mild and the ground was covered with a slush of snow and water, when suddenly a roar was heard in the west and a wind-storm came on so quickly that everything was frozen up almost instantly. Mr. Welch says that when the wind-storm came, his pigs huddled together in the pen to keep warm, but some half dozen of them carelessly allowed their tails to droop into the slush and were frozen fast. The next morning he heard discordant sounds comino- from the sty, and on eroirig there found it " exciting and distressing"' to see the pigs wriggling to loosen their tails, and squealing most fearfully. He loosened them by cutting their tails with his knife, and they afterwards looked so pretty that he has ever since kept the tails of- his pigs clipped short.

Mr. Welch is a great stockraiser, and thinks he has fed and raised more stock than any other man in Downs township. He seems to be a natural stockraiser, has a disposition for managing horses, cattle, slice}) and pigs, and during all the years he has been in the business, he has received no injury from any domestic anim'lean county. 503 mal. He thinks that of all stock raised sheep pay the best for the trouble expended upon them. He has sold wool at prices ranging from thirty-five to seventy cents, and thinks it would pay to raise sheep with wool at thirty cents per pound. Like nearly all persons who raise sheep, he would like to have a pretty good tariff upon imported wool. He says the dealers in wool are "up to their capers," as well as dealers in wheat or any other produce. He says that in February and March they throw as much wool on the market as possible, for the purpose of putting down the price when the new clip comes in. In 1859 and '60, Mr. Welch began to go pretty deeply into the business of raising sheep, but abandoned it because of the danger of haying them killed by dogs. He had one hundred and eleven sheep killed by dogs in one night, and one hundred and sixty during the week. This made the raising of sheep uncertain and a source of constant anxiety, and he put his time and trouble into other kinds of stock, which, perhaps, might not pay so well, but be more safe and certain.

Mr. Welch's experience in raising pork has been varied. The price has ranged from one dollar per hundred to ten dollars and fifty cents; but when it reached the latter figure the price of gold was $2.50.

Mr. Welch has been very successful as a farmer and stockraiser. When he came to the West lie was a poor boy, but he exercised discretion in his business, looked ahead and guarded against danger, took no unnecessary risks, and now finds himself in very independent circumstances. He was at first a farmer and teamster. In 183(3 he hauled a load of goods from Pekin to Bloomington, and from there to Dixon. He had two wagons, each hauled by four yoke of cattle. One wagon carried a ton and the other a ton and a half. He went through very successfully, but when he came to the Inlet Swamp he found it impossible to pull through even by putting all the oxen on a single wagon: so he put his coffee sacks and other articles on the backs of the oxen and made them go through in that way. The goods belonged to William Covel, and were the first ever brought to Dixon. He went to Rockford in 1837, and on his way from

Mr. "Welch has done as many farmers in the early days were obliged to do, driven his hogs to Chicago on foot, camping out and herding them at night. He says this was sometimes lively work, and was like standing picket. He has hauled wheat to Chicago and received forty-eight cents per bushel.

For some time after his arrival in the West, Mr. Welch followed the prairie plow, which was pulled by five yoke of oxen, and cut a sod of twenty or twenty-two inches. He did this in Illinois and Wisconsin ; at one time he broke three hundred acres of land near Beloit, Wisconsin, for a company settled there.

Henrv Welch is five feet and ten inches in height, measured that since he was nineteen years of age. He weighs over two hundred pounds and is muscular and healthy. So far as his countenance is concerned, some people say he looks like Horace Greeley. He does not like to be told this, but would greatly prefer to resemble Abraham Lincoln, whom he so much admires. Mr. Welch is highly esteemed by his neighbors by whom he is known as a man strictly honest, correct in his judgment and kind in his manner. He has that hospitality winch the old settlers were accustomed to show, and his friends are always welcome under his roof.

Henry Welch married, November 24, 1842, Miss Minerva Colwell, daughter of James Colwell of Gibbon County, Indiana. Xeither of her parents are now living. Mr. and Mrs. Welch have had eisrht children. Thcv are :

Eliza Matilda, born October 8, 1852 : Alfred J. Welch, born July 5, 1855; George Henry Welch, born June '13, 1858; Minerva Elizabeth, born June 6,1866, live at home.

John Cusey was born April 9, 1822, in what is now Ashland County, Ohio. His father's name was John Cusey, and his mother's maiden name was Sarah Ford. John Cusey, the grandfather of the John Cusey of whom we are writing, was the younger son of an aristocratic family in England. Being the younger son he was not allowed to inherit any portion of his father's estate, and this completely disgusted him with English laws and customs. He was put into the English army against his will, and when the American colonies rebelled against the mother country he was among the number sent to whip them into submission. But his sharp experience with English customs and his enlistment in the army contrary to his will had made him a strong Republican. As soon as he found an opportunity, he, with sixty-two others, deserted from the British army and joined the American forces. He fought gallantly for the American cause for six years and seven months, was in many battles, and in one of them was wounded in the right lung. He lived many years afterwards, but" never entirely recovered from his wound. He died from its effect in 171*6. .He left one son son, Job Cusey. The latter was born in 1794, near Ellicott's Mills in Maryland. As his father died two years after his birth, Job Cusey was placed in charge of E/.ekiel Weeks, a Revolutionary soldier, and a former messmate of John Cusey. During the war of 1812 the Weeks' boys enlisted in the army, and Job Cusey went with them, but not as a soldier, for he was small for his age. But he was a lively boy and acted as teamster or hostler or did anything and everything to make himself useful. At the close of the war he emigrated to the Western Reserve in Ohio, and there raised a family. In 1836 he prepared to come to Illinois, and told his boys that they could have a few weeks' time to visit their relations. But Nathan Brooks, a soldier of the Revolution and of 1812, told the boys that it would be more profitable for them to spend their time in clearing three acres of timber land for him, and if they would do so, he would give them one of Smith's best rifles, with which to shoot ijanie in Illinois. The boys cleared the land and earned the rifle. The family came to McLean County, Illinois, in the fall of 1836, and John and Thomas Cusey used the gun to kill ie chickens. At one time, while after prairie chickens, they found a herd of deer, and Thomas Cusev shot a large buck through the nose. It was stunned at first and fell, and Thomas grabbed it by the jaw and ear. But it soon arose and threshed Thomas around, though he hung to it closely. John Cusey came to the help of his brother and grasped the deer by the legs, but was kicked off instantly. The deer had shed its horns and could not fight advantageously, but it was very plucky and would not let the bovs get away. It knocked down first one and then another, and as each fell the other came to the rescue. Thomas attempted to load the gun, but before he could do so the deer came on him, and with its fore-feet jumped on the gun and broke off the stock. The boys fought desperately, and at last killed the deer with a knife ; but they were cut in many places by the deer's sharp hoofs ; their clothes were torn off, and they were covered with blood from head to foot. This was the first deer they killed.

Reference has been made in the sketch of John Price to a wolf, which was a terror to the settlers from Mackinaw to Salt Creek. Mr. Cusey once heard this wolf howling and knew that it was in pursuit of game, and supposed that it would soon get a good meal of venison and be unable to run. He mounted his horse and went after it, and sure enough it was eating a deer. He came up with it after a short chase of a mile, but it snapped its large jaws together as quick as a steel-trap, and its appearance was so ferocious that Mr. Cusev could not urge his horse near to it and returned home disappointed. John Price shot the wolf some time afterwards.

Mr. Cusev was for twenty-five years a clerk for Jesse Funk, while the latter bought cattle and traded in stock. Thev carried around large steel-yards to weigh the hogs, which were suspended in the air. After they were weighed, one-fifth was deducted in order to arrive at their weight after being dressed. Mr. Cusey multiplied the gross weight by eight and struck off one figure, and the quotient was the neat weight. This process was discovered by Jesse Funk, who could not write a cypher. Of course it is easy for any one at all familiar with the arithmetic to understand the process, but is quite remarkable for one who never wrote a figure. Mr. Funk remembered everything without the aid of memoranda. Atone time he said : "Cusev, I have lost twenty dollars and can not tell where it has gone." Then he reviewed the purchase of one thousand and eighty-four hogs, which he had bought singly and in small lots, and every purchase was correct ; but still the twenty dollars was unaccounted for. At last he remembered that he had lent twenty dollars to a friend. Jesse Funk had a habit of giving people various nick-names. At one time when Funk was going with Cusey down in Piatt County to purchase stock, Mr. Funk said : "Now, Cusey, we are going down among the Baptist brethren in Piatt County, and I must call you deacon, and then I shall have no trouble in dealing with them." Cusey objected to no purpose, and whenever Funk had a misunderstanding it was settled by Deacon Cusey to the satisfaction of all. Mr. Cusey was an administrator for Jesse Funk's estate, and saw the first tax-receipt the latter ever paid. It was given by Martin Scott, Sheriff and Collector, and wTas for the sum of thirty-five cents. But the last tax paid by Mr. Funk amounted to two thousand three hundred dollars.

Job Cusey, the father of John Cusey, was an old-time abolitionist. He was made so by a scene which he witnessed in Maryland, before he came to the West. There was a negro preacher, a most excellent man, who held meetings among the negroes of the neighborhood. But after awhile his master became involved in debt and was obliged to sell his slaves, and the negro preacher was sold with the rest. He was chained to a slave-gang, which started on its journey to the farther south. As it was moving off, he looked up and saw his master and the crowd, which lined the road, and said :

Just then a person passed along the crowd with a hat in which he received contributions. Enough money was raised on the spot to buy the negro preacher from the slave driver. The slave owners of the neighborhood contributed, because the preacher kept their slaves quiet. This incident so impressed Mr. Cusey that he became an Abolitionist forth with, and remained so during his life. When Mr. Lovejoy came to speak at Bloomington, a great many years ago, many citizens thought that he should not be allowed to use the court house. It was then that Job Cusey and George Dietrich stood by liim and insisted that the court house should be open to him. They walked with him through the streets, while the excited crowd threw eggs at them, but the two men continued at their post.

John Cusey was elected to the State Senate during the campaign of 1872. His attendance at the Legislature was marked by some happy hits. During the session of 1873 one Senator proposed a great reform in the choosing of School Superintendents in the various counties of the State, and insisted upon civil service reform, and that School Superintendents should pass an examination to find whether they were qualified to perform the duties of their office. Mr. Cusey observed that in the election of County Superintendents the people passed on their qualifications, and he asked if the persons chosen by the people were to be examined as to their qualifications for their positions, what would become of the Senator who introduced the bill ! The proposition was defeated.

"In the Illinois State Senate there are two men whose names are so' nearly alike - Casey and Cusey - that the telegraph and newspapers, during the recent session, got them badly confused occasionally. Casey is a Democratic Senator from 'away clown in Egypt,' and Cusey is a Republican Senator from McLean County. Just before the final adjournment on Saturday, Mr. Casey introduced the following bill :

Section 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the name of John Cusey, of McLean County, Illinois, is hereby changed to George Washington McLean, and by said last mentioned name lie shall be hereafter known, designated and respected ; and that all the rights, privileges and hereditaments, whether corporeal or incorporeal, that appertained to the said Cusey, be and are hereby rested in the said George Washington McLean ; and in the said latter cognomen he may sue and be sued, the same as if was single and unmaaried.

A roar of laughter greeted this effort. Its point will be understood when the fact is stated that the types have almost daily intermixed Cusey and Casay to such an extent that was exasperating to both.

Mr. Cusey is a very entertaining man in conversation, and nearly everything he says has point to it or humor in it. He says that at one time, while Jesse Funk was taking a drove of swine along the road to market, he pointed to a pig in the rear of the drove, and said : "See there, Deacon Cusey, that pig is going to break." Mr. Cusey watched it closely and noticed that it was restless, and was gradually passing the other pigs in the drove. AVhen it came pretty well towards the head of the drove, sure enough, it broke. "Xow," said Mr. Cusey, "when professional politicians see a man, whom they are unable to manage, going ahead, they say, 'Watch him, watch him,' and the}T try to hold him back, long before the people see what is going on."

Mr. Cusey is about live feet and ten inches in height. His hair is dark and thick, and sprinkled with gray. His face is broad and humorous. His conversation is very entertaining, and everything he says displays his shrewdness and his -correct ideas. His pleasantry is of the best kind. He is not a man who loves his enemies, though he would not do them injustice if he knew it. He is a pretty quick judge of men, and it requires only a short time for him to understand them pretty well. He has not had the advantages of a good education, but his vigorous intellect and his shrewdness bring success without the training of the schools.

On the 23d of November, 1843, Mr. Cusey married Miss Hannah Bishop. They have had nine children, seven of whom are living. One child died in infancy, and one, Sarah Elizabeth, died in her sixteenth year. Those living are Charity E., Thomas H., John A., James 0., Joseph M., Mary J., and Hannah E. Cusey. The first two are married.

Troop Richardson was born July 14, 1809, in Cayuga County, IS" cm- York, near Auburn. His father, Samuel L. Richardson, and his mother, whose maiden name was Ann Wright, were both of English descent. The ancestors of his mother came from England with William Penn.

In October, 1818, the Richardson family started to Fort Harrison, three miles from Terre Haute, Indiana. They had an all winter's journey of it, and came to their destination in March, 1819. The journey was made by water on a flat-boat and was full of adventure. At Rising Sun, about thirty miles above Jeffersonville, on the Ohio River, they were crushed into the ice which was running. The ice above came down and crushed them into the ice below. Their boat was raked fore and aft, and raised up out of the water, but by good management they released themselves from their dangerous situation. They crossed the Ohio Falls while the water was low, and had great difficulty in avoiding rocks and going through. In Indiana they followed farming, and when Troop Richardson became about eighteen years of age he went to flatboating. He left Fort Harrison, Indiana, December 27, 1827, on a flatboat with Solomon Welch, the father of .Henry Welch of Downs township. They started for ]STew Orleans. They floated out into the Wabash, ran through cut-offs, storms and cold winds down into the Ohio. The first day on the Ohio was calm, and they decided to run at night. But during the night they had a stern storm, that is, one that blew down stream. The night was perfectly black, and they learned their position in the stream by hallooing and listening to the echo from the bank. They went at tremendous speed, at steamboat rates, and any little accident would have thrown them all into the water. They came down the Ohio into the Mississippi. When they left New Madrid they went through a second storm. Mr. Richardson was cableman, that is, it was his duty to throw the cable around a stump or post to stop the boat, This storm blew them down so swiftly that they were unable to stop before reaching Vicksburg, and when Mr. Richardson threw the seagrass cable around a stump, it was drawn so tight, that when struck, it would hum like a fiddle-string. The seagrass cables were very strong and elastic, and if broken by the strain of the flatboat the cableman was in a dangerous situation, for the elastic cable might recoil and strike him. Thev also landed at Natchez, which was then noted as the hardest place on the Mississippi River. Many murders were committed there every day and human life was held very cheap. In the South Mississippi River they heard every night the voices of panthers and alligators. The latter makes a noise which sounds much like that of a yearling calf. Their voices were sometimes as numerous as the croakings of frogs in a pond. But no alligators were seen during that time of the year as they were back in the swamps and bayous, and would not come out until warm weather. The flatboat went down to New Orleans, and when the cargo was disposed of the party returned home. Mr. Richardson on his return went by steamboat up to Port Gibson, then rowed in a skiff down to Natchez, and there went on a steamboat which took him up to Evansville, within one hundred and twenty miles of home. lie was obliged to row back to Natchez, because he could not land there while coming up the river. Steamboats in those days landed at very few points, as they were in constant danger of being captured on shore by bands of thieves. Mr. Richardson carried several hundred dollars in money with him, which lie could not have done, had it been known. lie walked from Evansville, one hundred and twenty miles, home. The boatmen on the river were a hard set of customers, but would tight for each other until death. Mr. Richardson tells of a very unpleasant predicament in which he was caught in 1836, while at New Orleans. He had two rlatboats lashed together by seagrass inch chords, and was so unfortunate as to get into the wake of a steamboat. The swell struck his flatboats sideways, and the seagrass chords snapped in two. The bottom of one boat could be seen as it rolled up in the swell.

In 1835, Mr. Richardson moved the widow of Solomon Welch and her family to Illinois. There the former entered land, hauled out logs for a cabin and returned to Indiana. In the summer of 1838, he again came out to Illinois. The season was not very dry and he mired down nearly half a dozen times between Mt. Pleasant (Farmer City) and the present town of Leroy. He went on his farm and commenced February 1, 1839, with three yoke of cattle, to improve it. He hauled all his lumber and timber three miles to make a rive board fence on three sides of a thirty acre lot: the fence on the fourth side he built with rails. He broke his land, put it into corn, wheat and oats, broke ten acres for Mr. Kimler, completed all this by the first of May, and his only help was a teamster hired for one month. Then he went to Ottawa and broke prairie for Mr. Welch. He did a great deal of teaming, slept in his wagon, cooked his own victuals, always took his own half of the road, and always gave the other half when he passed a team.

In 1841 Mr. Richardson made two trips to Chicago and one to Rockford with a load of apples. The country there was in great excitement over the lynching of two men, named Driscoll, father and son, who lived in Ogle County. They had been shot over their own graves and it was known that the entire country was infested with thieves. Mr. Richardson was therefore very cautious, and on his return during the Rockford trip he remained up all night to watch his money and horses.

Mr. Richardson has never done much hunting. He has killed prairie chickens and wildgeese occasionally, and has chased prairie wolves. He savs the wolves in Illinois were numerous enough, but never so thick as in Indiana. AVhile he was in the Wabash country in Indiana the wolves came to the house and peeped in at the window. It was impossible to get the pig-pen close enough to the house to protect the pigs from the wolves. The great amount of timber in Indiana afforded cover to the wolves and they were therefore more numerous and saucy than in Illinois.

Mr. Richardson has had much experience with fires on the prairie. He says that when they sweep over the prairie they run in currents or veins, that is, one part shoots far ahead of the rest and the fire on each side moves more slowly. He has often fouerht fire, but learned t<> manage the matter without becoming excited. One of his houses occupied by a tenant came near destruction by a prairie fire, but Mr. Richardson hastened out and made a back fire which saved it. The fire had a large sweep over the prairie as scarcely anything interposed to check it between Diamond and Randolph's Grove on the west and Buckle's Grove on the east.

Mr. Richardson followed up teaming until the railroads began to come through. He hauled wheat to Chicago, Peoria and Pekin. He worked harder than he should have done: nevertheless helms enjoyed good health, and never had a doctor called on his account since he was eleven of age. His habitB have been remarkably temperate. He never chewed or smoked tobacco, or drank liquor enough to affect him. He has lived since the year 1841 on the place where he now resides, south of Diamond Grove, in Downs Township.

On the fourth of September, 1863, Mr. Richardson took a trip to New Orleans to visit his son, John W. Kiel lardson, who was sick in the hospital there. He went to Cairo and there took the steal uboat Champion, loaded with government supplies, and went to Memphis. From that place the steamboat was escorted by a gunboat as it was liable, if unprotected, to be tired into by the rebels. He went down to a convalescent hospital, seven miles this side of Kew Orleans, and there found his son, who was better than expected. While returning, Mr. Richardson took a deck passage with twenty-two sick soldiers, lie waited on the soldiers as well as he could and tried to make them comfortable. When they arrived at Memphis the boat was pressed to go on the lied River expedition with General Banks, and Air. Richardson was obliged to reship. The boat which he left was manned by a crew of rebel sympathizers and it caught tire and was burnt up, and it was thought that the crew set it on tire. At Vicksburg Mr. Richardson went to see Whistling Dick, a famous gun near there, which shot a long distance. As he was rather curious to see the inventions which are made for the destruction of life, he examined some percussion shell which he saw lying in a pile, and, without knowing the dangerous material he was handling, carelessly tossed one of them back into the pile ! By good fortune it did not explode. He returned home without further adventure. He was well treated by the soldiers on this trip and always felt himself safe with them.

Mr. Richardson married, January 17, 1833, at Fort Harrison, Indiana, Alary Welch, a sister of Henry Welch, of Downs township. She died March 6, 1870, aged fifty-seven years and six months.

Mr. Richardson is of medium height, rather slim, but well formed, wiry and tough. He has a good-natured Roman nose, and his face wears a pleasant, kind expression. He is a very plucky and determined man, and he has a lively sense of justice. His disposition is well shown by his remark that while passing a stranger he always took one-half of the road and gave the other half. In other words, he is willing and anxious to give men their due, but insists that they shall give up what belongs to him. He is a man of honor, and never deserted the post of danger. His neighbors speak highly of him, and say that while that most dreaded pestilence, the cholera, was carrying off its victims in 1853, Mr. Richardson never hesitated a moment about visiting the sick, and affording all the relief in his power. He has grandchildren around him, and leads a happy life, and his friends hope that his days may yet be long and that he may enjoy the competence he has worked so hard to obtain.

Source changes here: from The History of McLean County, Illinois; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men, by Le Baron, Wm., Jr. & Co., Chicago, published 1879; 1,098 words in this source stream.

Downs Township

There seems to be a difference of opinion in regard to the true name of this station. Priceville is the name by which the neighborhood was known for several years ; when the station was established near the center of Section 4, in 1870, the railroad officials called it Downs. The same year, the Downs Post Office, which was for several years at Mr. Peasley's house, was transferred to the station, and the post office authorities have since known it as such. Soon after, the small office of " Delta," in Old Town, was discontinued, and all mail matter for that place was ordered sent to Downs. The reader will please take his choice. P. B. Price, son of old Father Price, laid out the town and platted fifteen blocks north of the railroad.

It is nine miles from Bloomington, on the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western Railroad, and is the only station and the only post office in the township.

C. D. Bellville, as soon as the place was laid out, built a store on .the block north of the depot, and filled up with a general stock of goods. He now lives at Weedman, where he is engaged in trade. In the fall of the same year, J. A. Davis and Amos Allen built a store and put in a stock of merchandise. The following spring, the Killian brothers built and occupied another. These three were more than the trade would support, and this latter firm bought out the stock of Davis & Allen, and consolidated with their own. In 1874, the Killian Bros, sold to Craig & Rodman, who continued for about six months, when Rodman sold out; and, in the following spring, John Craig sold to his brother Joseph, who .closed out the stock in 1876, and closed up the store. In the fall of 1876, Mr. Savidge moved the old storehouse from Delta, and Davis & Killian put a stock of goods in it. In the spring of 1877, C. D. Bellville made another mercantile venture, and six months later moved the goods to Kumler, and sold the building to A. Anderson, who keeps a shoe-shop there.

In the fall of 1877, John Bellville traded his store for Kansas land to John Denham, who closed out the stock in six months, and sold the building to Davis ; soon after this, Davis & Killian dissolved and Cowden took an interest ; 0. Staten purchased the stock and good will in April, 1879.

When Davis & Killian left the store they had so long occupied, Price Bros, opened a stock of dry goods and groceries, and ran it for a year, when they closed out the balance of their stock, and the store has not since been occupied.

In the fall of 1875, Drs. Montgomery & Chapin built and stocked the present drug store, and have continued to occupy, adding stationery, groceries and wares.

Dr. James Montgomery, the " father of the town," and the " good physician " for all the surrounding country, was educated in the " Green Isle " of his nativity, and after serving his adopted country for three years in Capt. Walden's company of the 94th, commenced the practice of medicine in this neighborhood. In the spring of 1871, he moved to Downs Station. His partner, Dr. S. L. Chapin, came here in the spring of 1875 ; that fall, he entered into partnership with Montgomery, and, in 1878, took up his residence in Holder, north of here, in order to better accommodate his large practice in that vicinity.

P. B. Price, either alone or with J. J. and B. R. alternately, has been engaged in grain, lumber and stock trade, at Downs, ever since the town was laid out. The business, some years, has been quite large and lucrative, but at others very unsatisfactory.

J. H. Robertson came, when the village of Delta migrated southward, in the spring of 1871 ; his blacksmith-shop was burned in 1873, and he rebuilt and took in Frank Lewis as partner. He has all the time carried on a considerable trade in agricultural implements with his blacksmithing business. When the people of Downs wanted a Justice of the Peace who could " temper " the spirit of the community, they elected Robertson ; he knows how to strike when the iron is hot.

J. K. Gardner sold implements here during the seasons of 1876 and 1877. The Postmasters of Downs, since the office has been located at the station, have been C. D. Bellville, John Bellville, John A. Davis, and Oliver Staten, who was appointed April 1, 1879.

The railroad agents, successively, have been C. D. Bellville, from 1870 to 1873 ; J. A. Davis, till 1876 ; George Willhoite, until 1877, and A. Daller since.

The " Hopewell " M. E. Church was built about 1867, at where the Hopewell Cemetery was and still is. It belonged to Old Town Circuit at that time, and became attached to Le Roy Circuit in 1873. A year later, it became a station. It is about 36x50, plain, and cost about $2,400. Thomas Twining, J. N. Savidge, John Rice, Dr. James Montgomery, J. H. Robertson, P. B. Price and James Brakey, were, among others, prominent in building this house of worship.

Revs. S. Middleton, W. C. Lacey, J. G. Bonnell, T. J. N. Simmons, assisted by George Reed, S. H. Whittock, William Willis and George Scrimger, have successively served the Church at Hopewell.

In 1 878, the building was moved to Downs and repaired, at a cost of $300. Rev. Job Ingram is the present Pastor, under whose earnest ministrations the church and Sabbath school are in a flourishing condition. The church numbers 130, and the school about 100.

What is known as the " Kickapoo Academy " was chartered as an independent school district in 1867. The territory embraced is about four sections in Downs (including the station) and two. or three in Old Town, including Gillum Station. This district has, by its charter, a Board of Education, of six members, and certain other privileges, which, by the other school districts, are deemed unfair. One of its inconveniences is, that the district embraces both Downs and Gillum Stations, and as there is but one schoolhouse, all the children which Gillum furnishes must take the railroad for two or three miles to school.

The present Board of Education consists of J. H. Robertson, President; J. B. Weaver, Secretary ; J. A. Davis, Treasurer ; George P. Wood, P. B. Price, John Cowden and S. Scott.